Thank you LTI TEFL

[bigdave]

I came to Beijing looking for teaching jobs. I did not have much money. The best offer I got was about 7,000RMB a month. The hours were mostly at night and the pay was pretty horrible.

Then I stumbled upon a company called LTI TEFL they told me I would have no problem making 12,000RMB a month after the course and they would give me my money back if I could not. I thought ok what do I have to lose. so I took a gamble.

The course was intense and after 4 weeks I was transformed. Now after only a few months I am earning 17,000RMB a month after taxes and have to reject work every day. For a young man that is more than I made in America.

I have to say this the only way for a young backpacker on a shoestring budget to go to Beijing. Check them out at www.ltiteflbeijing.com.

I you dont believe me please write me

[Niko]

Thanks for sharing this advice bigdave. Seems an interesting option for many who head to China then.

[gfell]

Independent comments about this post:

This is shameless advertising and a bunch of B.S. to boot. I'm not all that sure that the following post isn't in on it - or maybe they just don't know any better.

Anyone making 17,000 RMB is either working their tail off with nearly 40 hours a week, doing other odd jobs and such, or is outright lying. In any case, there is no course or cert. in the world that would "make the difference" in such wages.

Be wary of the information presented here.

[bigdave]

Wow now I know I really did something right. When I posted this I thought people were going to tell me they made more than me and that I wasted my money. I put this BLOG to inform people about this great opportunity.

Don’t be like me and think I can only work for 4,000- 6,000 as seen on internet contracts. I am living proof you don’t need to do that. I think one reason there is such a difference in salaries is that LTI cuts off the middle man and negotiates the best wages and places you in these jobs. I think a huge problem that is facing china is not lack of teachers but lack of quality. The teachers in Beijing know little about Chinese problems and can’t even put a decent lesson plan together. Schools are happy to pay for quality teachers in Beijing.

I am shocked and a little happy people would be in such disbelief. When I came to Beijing It was not by any means a financial decision. I planed on working for about 500$ a month, learn about Chinese culture, history and studying mandarin but even with this salary I still have time to do that. To me I am still in disbelief that just a program can help me this much. But even If you don’t believe me wouldn’t it wise to investigate the school before dismissing it as some sort of scam. A great man once said.

If a window of opportunity appears, don't pull down the shade.

If you don’t believe me feel free to set up a time when you are in Beijing and we can meet. Thanks again and happy national day for all those in China.

[Hypiereon]

If you're making 17,000 RMB per month, by all means go ahead and be impressed with yourself. Anyone working 40 hours at 106.25 RMB per hour is going to make 17,000 RMB. That has nothing to do with any company placing you, and everything to do with hard work.

I notice you never mention just how many hours you are putting in. Interesting.

Standard wage should be anywhere from 125 to 150 per hour, unfortunately people do settle for less and get crappy contracts. However, there is no way in the world someone is going to work a standard 16 hour per week contract and get paid 17,000 RMB. Not in any reality. For REALLY qualified people, wages can go up to 200 RMB per hour. Even then you're working over 21 classroom hours a week to make the 17,000 RMB per month. Again, this has nothing to do with your little pet program.

For this guy to be dead on, you'd have to be pulling down 265.625 RMB per hour to make the 17,000 RMB per month he's talking about. Corporate companies DO charge that amount per hour to corporate clients, and even MORE, but no way they're giving up more than 200 RMB per hour to the Trainers. This guy is either outright lying or working like a dog.

Congratulations on working hard. If you're pulling down 40 hours a week, or even 21 hours a week, then you've definitely earned it. Anything to do with LTI? No way. Anyone reading this post needs to consider carefully what is being said. There is no program out there you can pay for that is going to increase your standard hourly rate, and there is nothing a program can do for you that you can't do for yourself.

If this joker really paid out money to find out that he could make 17,000 RMB working 40 hour weeks, then yes - he wasted his money. I could have told you that for free. Don't waste your time and money on placement agencies. The only certifications of any value are your 4 year degree and a minimum of a 40 hour TEFL or TESOL Certificate. Two years teaching experience is also a definite plus. Anything more than that is completely unnecessary.

Unless you really want to shell out the money for useless crap like LTI then simply read over the message boards here and ask any questions for things you don't understand. People here are very helpful, very straight up, and are speaking from real-life in-country experience. They also aren't out to sell you anything.

Like I said, 17,000 RMB is possible, but the hours you'd be putting in . . .

[Niko]

Hypiereon has a very valid point.

How many hours do you put in bigdave and what is your hourly rate?

The average salary in China is about 6000 RMB per month. However, if you want to double that, you can reach 12,000RMB per month. By doubling it, I mean working double the hours and bringing the quality of life down a big way.

[bigdave]

The rules of Hypieren
You should never take a TEFL course
You can’t make more than 200RMB an hour
You should not work hard when you are a teacher
Every one is full of shit but me


I work hard but not that hard I work all day Sunday and make 1,200 that’s 4,800 a month. Maybe I got lucky a little I tutor a business man in guo mao Supply chain terminology and business English. He pays me 200 an hour. 8 hours a week 2 hours per session. I had a duel major in college logistics and East Asian studies at U Penn. According to you guys making that much is impossible, right? That’s 6,400rmb more. My third job is I currently teach at a primary school in Hai Dian 3 days a week and that brings me to about 17,000rmb. I am also teaching some other one on one but they only pay 150 and I don’t meet them that much.

All the jobs were introduced threw them. I am new in Beijing and really don’t know. Is this normal to have these kinds of jobs so quickly? I don’t think I would be wrong if I said even if you wanted this much work you could not get it. Teaching English is great. I have a lot of fun teaching and when I look at these hours I think damn I work a lot but it doesn’t feel like that.
Experience

What we see depends mainly on what we look for.
- John Lubbock

[Niko]

Well glad to hear things are working out for you bigdave. Am sure you are in the minority for getting such a high pay in China. Well done!

[Hypiereon]

Originally Posted by bigdave

The rules of Hypieren
You should never take a TEFL course
You can’t make more than 200RMB an hour
You should not work hard when you are a teacher
Every one is full of shit but me

Let's see if I can't quote from my own post in here to "clarify" these new rules of "mine."
All the quotes below are FROM THIS THREAD. (Try reading an entire thread before responding to it.)

1. "The only certifications of any value are your 4 year degree and a minimum of a 40 hour TEFL or TESOL Certificate." (I also happen to have a TEFL Certificate so go hump a frog or whatever else it is you do to get happy and stop lying about people when the truth is in the same thread.)

2. "Corporate companies DO charge that amount per hour to corporate clients, and even MORE, but no way they're giving up more than 200 RMB per hour to the Trainers." - from me
"I work all day Sunday and make 1,200" - from him (still no mention of number of hours on this, but "all day" can be anywhere from 6 - 8 hours easily.)
"I tutor a business man in guo mao Supply chain" "He pays me 200 an hour." - from him Still not more than 200 from any ONE person I see.
"8 hours a week 2 hours per session" - from him WHAT? DOES THIS MAKE SENSE TO ANYONE? I still can't calculate how many hours he's putting in, but let's stick with what I can figure is the low end - he's putting in:

• 1. All day Sunday = 6 hours? (unless this and the second job are the same thing so we'll just cut this out entirely)
• 2. 8 hours a week 2 hours per session = 8 hours?
• 3. School contract = 16 hours (for standard contracts)?
• 4. 3 days a week = say 6 hours?

So, by my count, and I can't even be accurate because his information is SO vague, puts him easily at 30 hours and probably more. You want to work that many hours for that kind of pay, GO AHEAD! But it isn't LTI making the difference here, it's the number of hours he's putting in.

I actually DO make more than 200 RMB per hour, but no ONE person or company is paying it out to me. In another one of my threads on this forum I advocate getting several students at 50 - 60 RMB per hour. Let's do the math shall we? 6 students at 50 RMB per hour = 300 RMB per hour. All due to LTI right? I think not. I never used the words "impossible" or ever said you can't make more than 200 RMB per hour. What I DID say is that you're not going to find any company paying you more than that. (Not yet anyway.)

3. "Congratulations on working hard. If you're pulling down 40 hours a week, or even 21 hours a week, then you've definitely earned it."
Point here is, by saying "17,000 RMB a month" people automatically think in terms of standard contracts. He should have been up front with everyone about the number of hours he's putting in.

4. "simply read over the message boards here and ask any questions for things you don't understand. People here are very helpful, very straight up, and are speaking from real-life in-country experience. They also aren't out to sell you anything." Yeah, I've claimed the market on knowledge as is clearly visible by this statement as well. (grief!)

bigdave needs an eye exam. Either he never read my thread or he's illiterate. In the first case, no need to apologize, you're forgiven. In the second case, LTI needs to better screen their exit candidates before they give them a Cert. and send them off to places to represent them.

So, question is, where does LTI really come in? The only mention he made of LTI again is actually finding him work. Well, THAT'S worth the price and time of going through LTI !!!! Unless, of course, you can do it yourself, which you can, and then you're just paying for a referral service.

Look, I'm not against hard work. I'm putting in over 12 hours days in my own office getting my own company off the ground in China now, and because I'm only starting out I'm not making a whole lot, but the returns in the future should be very good indeed.

Point is, nothing he said about the LTI training course made the difference for this guy. By his own admission the only reason he got work was because of their referral service. For someone who has a TEFL CErtificate and 4 year degree, (again, 2 yrs. teaching experience is a real plus) then you don't need to pay LTI to get work like this Highly Informed and Enlightened Individual did.

You can take the 40hr i - to - i online course without ever setting foot in a classroom, get your TEFL Certification, and you're ready to roll if you have a 4 year degree. Do your homework, get help from people on the boards, and you don't need LTI or ANY refferal service.

Which reminds me - I wonder what commission this guy gets for everyone he directs to the school. Sorry, not commission "referral bonus" or whatever. Bet there's something in it for him. However, I could be wrong and this guy might just be the only Good Samaritan out there ready to educate all you dumb people who were willing to do the extra work (ie. work hard) to get the same information he paid for. So, who's really advocating that people shouldn't work hard here?

Don't NOT go to LIT if you really want to do it. (Sounds like the guy is eager for that commission! Wouldn't want to deny him that opportunity now would we?!) I'm not against them, I'm just against someone coming over to the message boards and trying to ram it down everyone's throat's as the one thing that will "transform" us all.

Like I've always said, get educated, get on the boards, do the work yourself, be careful without getting overly paranoid, and you'll do fine without having to shell out any of your own money to do it. If you want the shortcut and someone else to fool with it all, by all means check out these places. Just makes sure you're not ripping yourself off by not doing what you can do on your own first.

[Margy]

Nice well supported facts there Hypiereon. That's all we are after are the facts so we can make up our own decision.